We burn some bigtooth aspen every year during the shoulder season, I make sure when I'm splitting it the bark comes off.
I've had a hard time splitting poplar, both hydraulically and by hand. It seems to shred rather than actually split. Of course my ID may be wrong LOL !
All I've ever split is aspen poplar, and I agree it was some of the toughest stuff I've ever split. Really stringy. Maybe other poplars are easier; then again they tend to rot quickly, which certainly makes for easier splitting.
Welcome to the forum Scols. I remember when splitting by hand that popple split pretty good if left set for a while before splitting. But this is not tulip popple. I've never split that one.
To dovetail off of what BWS said, as you can see below, there are many species that can be referred to as "poplar" as they are all in the "Populus" genus. Two, very widespread species from the Populus genus are tremuloides (quaking Aspen) and grandidentata (Bigtooth Aspen). As you can see, cottonwood also falls in this genus but noticeably absent is the "tulip poplar" which is also locally referred to as Tulip Tree, American Tulip Tree, Whitewood, fiddle tree and yellow poplar. Latin name is Liriodendron tulipifera. While similar in some aspects to the Populus genus, VERY different in others.. Info poached from wikipedia.. Always good to make sure everyone is on the same sheet of music.. Populus grandidentata – Bigtooth Aspen (Eastern North America) Populus tremuloides – Quaking Aspen or Trembling Aspen (North America) Populus deltoides – Eastern Cottonwood (Eastern North America) Populus fremontii – Fremont Cottonwood (Western North America) Populus trichocarpa – Western Balsam Poplar or Black Cottonwood (Western North America) Populus angustifolia – Willow-leaved Poplar or Narrowleaf Cottonwood (Central North America) Populus heterophylla – Swamp Cottonwood (Southeastern North America)
Wood = BTU's, during shoulder season any of the not so good stuff( dried out of course) gets tossed to the fire god (NC-30)
Tulip Poplar is not very similar to the 'true' poplars such as Aspens and Cottonwoods. I like Tulip Poplar, which seems about like Red Maple to me. Aspen is very light, and still worth it but not as good as Tulip Poplar.
I'm glad to be here Dennis ! I just went back to trying to hand split the poplar after leaving the rounds stacked since last April, and they were still as difficult to split. It didn't matter whether I used the fiskars or sledge and wedges ,it mostly just shredded. Oh well I'll just split the rest when I borrow a splitter to clear up my ugly pile.
Very true and I run into a poplar last year that had been down for a while and busted it into 1 fits in the stove and after work when I came in to a few coals I would put 1 in the stove and poff and load her down at bed time
it's easy, and splits very straight... except in the spring, it's like sinking a maul into a sponge. water will actually splash out and foam will form. i think i've taken some pictures of this, i'll see if i hosted them. exactly what i was thinking... i've had it hang up a 22 ton splitter and i had to noodle the rounds to get the splitter through it.
No pics. The last time I had some was about 5 years ago when a friend with a tree service gave me about 6 cords of rounds that he didn't want to have anything to do with.
I'm guessing you are being a troll so I reported it. It is what a splitter does to wood which you obviously know being it's right in your sig.
I'm not sure, in another thread he was calling them something else. It maybe a regional thing, like how we use face cords here in NY.
